Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said that the fees for drone pilot training course will come down within the next 3-4 months as the number of schools offering this course is going to increase.
The issue was raised when a farmer—during a virtual conversation with Scindia on drones—raised the issue of high fees for a drone pilot training course.
Jyotiraditya Scindia said, ‘You said that the fees for the drone pilot course are very high at the moment. You should not worry at all.’
In the last five months, aviation regulator DGCA has certified 23 schools for training drone pilots, he said.
“As the number of schools increases, the cost of training drone pilots will go down,” he said.
The minister gave the example of mobile phone price and how it has come down gradually over the years in India.
“So as the number of schools increases, the cost of training drone pilots will also come down. Within the next 3-4 months, you will see that revolution as well as we keep increasing the number of such schools,” the minister said.
Scindia said that the country definitely needs more drone pilots and that is why their certification process has become completely decentralised.
“So, now, DGCA will certify only drone schools, and it is the respective drone schools that will provide certificates to pilots. We have completely removed the bureaucracy from this process,” he said.
The civil aviation ministry had earlier this month invited the second round of applications for the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, which was announced last year to boost drone manufacturing in India.
The first round of applications for the scheme were invited on March 10 and its results were declared on April 20, with Adani Group’s Israeli firm Elbit, IdeaForge Technology and a joint venture company with 12 other drone companies as beneficiaries. was selected in.
The ministry had announced the PLI scheme for drones and drone components on September 16, 2021 with an allocation of 120 crores spread over three financial years.
Under the PLI scheme, the incentive for the manufacturer of drones and drone components will be 20 per cent of the “value addition” undertaken by the company during the next three years.
Value addition is calculated as the annual sales revenue (net of GST) from drones and drone components minus the purchase cost (net of GST) of drones and drone components.
*With inputs from agencies